Climate Change Threats, Managed Retreats47:55

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As President Trump dismantles climate change protections, some coastal communities are now planning a “managed retreat” from sea rise. We’ll look at what that means.

In this file photo, Edison Dardar, an American Indian, tosses a cast net for shrimp on the edge of Pointe- aux-Chenes wildlife management area, in Isle de Jean Charles, La. (Gerald Herbert/AP)

American efforts to help stall climate change, thrown into reverse this week as President Trump went to the EPA to announce a new way ahead. Communities on the front lines of climate change are watching. On the coasts, with sea level rise already an issue, some are now talking about “managed retreat.” An orderly surrender to rising oceans. A new study looks at how that works. This hour On Point, if we don’t stop the change, the realities of “managed retreat” from the sea. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Miyuki Hino, doctoral student in environment and resources at Stanford University. Lead author in a new report on managed retreat, published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Robin Bronen, senior research scientist at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

Ben Strauss, ecologist and evolutionary biologist. Vice president for sea level and climate impacts at Climate Central, an independent organization of journalists and scientists reporting on climate change. (@ben_strauss)

From Tom’s Reading List

Nature Climate Change: Managed retreat as a response to natural hazard risk — "Managed retreat is a potentially important climate change adaptation option, providing an alternative to structural protection or accommodation measures to manage natural hazard risk. However, its application faces challenges given the projected scale of climate-induced displacement and the difficulties of resettlement. We evaluate the drivers, barriers and outcomes of 27 recent cases of managed retreat that have resettled approximately 1.3 million people."

New Yorker: When Is It Time To Retreat From Climate Change? — "Louisianans are more familiar than most Americans with the immediate effects of climate change, having lived through a number of record-breaking rainstorms and hurricanes in recent decades. The state is implementing a comprehensive plan to reduce flood risk, and officials in Washington, D.C., and Baton Rouge hope that the Isle de Jean Charles retreat, which has been carefully planned to preserve community ties, will serve as a model for future relocations along the Louisiana coast. But in other parts of the country the situation is murkier. "

New York Times: What to Know About Trump’s Order to Dismantle the Clean Power Plan -- "The Obama administration used the creation of the Clean Power Plan to show other countries that the United States was serious about taking meaningful action on climate change during the Paris climate talks in late 2015. The plan is the most significant part of the strategy to cut emissions by the amount specified in the Paris agreement."

President Trump’s Executive Orders And The Environment

We’ll unpack the political implications of President Donald Trump executive orders on the environment.

Dr. Daniel Kammen, professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley. Founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. (@dan_kammen)